The Stigma Behind Getting a Hair Transplant

The one thing I’ve learned about getting a hair transplant is that the men who are most interested in the procedure are the ones who don’t even need it.

They ask me all kinds of questions and tell me they are preparing to get a hair transplant in the future, even though they have no obvious indication of baldness.

These are men in their 20s and early 30s who upon closer inspection might show early signs of male pattern baldness, but it is already magnified a thousand times in their minds.

“I wasn’t this bald a few years ago,” a friend told me a few weeks ago. “I want to stop it before it gets worse.”

Then there are the guys who are completely bald. These are men in their 40 and 50s who started going bald, then decided to shave it all off. They show no interest in my procedure. Nor do they show any indication that they are stressing out about being bald.

They are bald and they are proud. And they look great considering they have focused their efforts on getting fit.

Then there are the guys who are in the midst of losing their hair. These are men in their 30s and 40s who have the receding frontal hairlines and widening bald spots on their crowns.

These are the guys who act like they don’t care about their hair loss but when the topic comes up, they reveal they are completely traumatized about it. Mainly because they have no clue as to when and where the hair loss is going to stop.

It’s like driving your car in the rain and hydroplaning on a puddle, knowing you might be able to gain control of the car but also knowing you could skid completely off the road.

But they are even more traumatized about the thought of getting a hair transplant, not because of the possible pain, but because it would show the world that they were concerned about their hair loss in the first place.

“Bro, weren’t you embarrassed about it?” a balding buddy asked me the other day.

The truth is, there is a stigma about getting a hair transplant. And it probably stems from the hair transplants of yesteryear when men would end up with hair plugs that made them look like dolls.

Today, hair transplants have improved where you can’t tell if somebody went through a hair transplant once their hair has grown out, which can take up to 18 months.

Unless, of course, they dedicate an entire blog to it.

In the video below, Dr. Ricardo Mejia talks about the differences between the old-style transplants and modern transplants.

But despite the advancements made, the stigma still exists and it seems to come mostly from men. We’re just not supposed to care about such trivial matters such as losing our hair.

Women, on the other hand, tend to be more congratulatory about my hair transplant in the way I imagine they are to each other when one gets a boob job.

In fact, they seem to be impressed that I have no shame about the whole process. But I’m a guy who smiles for my mug shots, so I have very little shame about most things.

But my male friends are so embarrassed about it, they tell me they cannot comment about my transplant on Facebook because then it would show everybody else that they are interested in such a procedure. So they watch from afar with great interest, they tell me.

“I would take a vacation and get one, so nobody would know,” another balding friend said.

But getting a hair transplant is not like getting a breast implant where you suddenly show up to the workplace and begin turning heads with perky boobs that sprang out of your chest seemingly overnight.

It’s a long, gradual progress, not much different than the balding process itself.

In fact, today, four months after the operation, I am finally beginning to see some real results. The growth is still sparse and there is still a long way to go, at least another year, but I can definitely see my future hairline.

For those of you not familiar with me, let me give you a brief rundown. I am a Miami multimedia journalist who gained notoriety in 2007 after I was arrested for photographing cops against their wishes [Read More…]